


To Live Among Wolves

by ladyknightanka



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Episode Related, Episode Tag, Gen, Past Child Abuse, References to Illness, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-05
Updated: 2013-06-05
Packaged: 2017-12-14 00:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/830529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyknightanka/pseuds/ladyknightanka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I know this one,” Melissa said, as paramedics wheeled a delirious, bloodied Isaac into the emergency room on a stretcher, and she did.</p>
<p>She could remember him as a little boy, and from just a year ago, too, but she never thought she'd see him quite like <i>this</i> again.</p>
<p>A brief look into Melissa's thoughts during the hospital scene(s) in <i>Tattoo</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Live Among Wolves

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_To Live Among Wolves_

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_

“I know this one,” Melissa said, as paramedics wheeled a delirious, bloodied Isaac into the emergency room on a stretcher, and she did.

She could remember him as a little boy, all wide, wild blue eyes beneath a mess of curls, blood spattered on his cheeks or arms or legs or body, his tiny jaw tight with the pain he didn’t want to reveal for fear of being called weak. She could remember him from just a year ago, too, eyes dead and flat as bottle glass, completely devoid of hope.

Mr. Lahey had been careful. Isaac visited the E.R. less and less often as the years went by. But it never quite _stopped_ , even if the excuses – lacrosse, a fight at school, a fall down the stairs, “just boys being boys” – grew more and more elaborate.

And back then, she’d tried to help. It was in her instincts, as a mother and a nurse – and, _worse_ , it reminded her of her ex-husband, of how he had treated her and Scott, cutting them down with his sharp words, driving her usually happy son to tears.

But nothing ever came of it, except a tentative friendship with Isaac, who would’ve shied from her like a whipped horse had he known she’d tipped child protective services off about his father, but was also desperate for a kind word or tender touch. Luckily, he never found out.

When he became a werewolf, however, she had thought she’d never see him again. She was glad and she wasn’t. She’d heard that it could make them cruel, the bite, and the thought of that battered little boy – of little Erica, frail on her hospital bed after a seizure – becoming vicious broke her heart.

But Scott was still Scott, with his crooked smiles and inherent sweetness. Lycanthropy hadn’t stolen her baby from her, so she told herself that they might be okay. She told herself that they could, at least, protect themselves now, with claws and teeth and inhuman strength. She told herself that she could rest easy, finally, although she’d never really been able to save them in the first place.

And yet, here was Isaac, on the stretcher, gripping her hand so tightly, begging her to look in on yet another brutalized girl. And all over town, there were _missing persons_ posters plastered with Erica’s face, and the face of another boy – also likely brutalized.

There wasn’t anything in the world that Melissa wanted more than to help her son, and to help these kids, but in moments like these, she realized she couldn’t. They were all as helpless as they’d ever been – perhaps even more so – in this world of monsters and men that they’d been dragged into.

But she would call Derek, and call Scott, and keep on trying. It was all she knew how to do.

 

-

_End_

_-  
_

**Author's Note:**

> When Melissa said, "I know this one," I suddenly got really emotional, because I figured she _would_ know Isaac, being a nurse, and she'd probably even come to care about him - as well as about Erica. Her being new to the whole werewolf thing undoubtedly made the situation even more loaded. So I decided to write how she might have been feeling in those scenes.


End file.
